Electrical terminal connections

ABSTRACT

An electrical contact assembly comprises an apertured tag through which the bare end of a conductive wire passes. A tang projects rearwardly from the aperture to lie alongside the wire and a sleeve surrounds the tang and wire. The sleeve is crimped to press the wire into conductive relationship with the tang and hence the tag.

United States Patent Inventor Hans Wernhard Schneider Castle Works, HighSt., Old Woking, Surrey, England App! No 9,328 Filed Feb. 6,1970Patented Sept. 14. 1971 Priority Feb. 13, 1969 Great Britain 7895/69ELECTRICAL TERMINAL CONNECTIONS 4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 339/276 R,

174/87, 200/166 CT, 339/277 R Int. Cl H0lr 11/08 Field of Search339/276,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,284,384 5/1942 Evans339/276 2,796,458 6/1957 Hartmann 174/74 2,825,041 2/1958 Meyer 339/263Primary Examiner-Joseph H. McGlynn Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller &Mosher ABSTRACT: An electrical contact assembly comprises an aperturedtag through which the bare end of a conductive wire passes. A tangprojects rearwardly from the aperture to lie alongside the wire and asleeve surrounds the tang and wire. The sleeve is crimped to press thewire into conductive relationship with the tang and hence the tag.

ELECTRICAL TERMINAL CONNECTIONS This invention relates to electricalconnections where it is desired to connect, for example, an electricalconducting cable or wire to a tag or its equivalent, the presentinvention avoiding the necessity for a soldering operation.

The present invention is particularly applicable to electric switchesparticularly miniature electric switches of the rotary type in which thefixed electrical contacts take the form of .thin metal pressings locatedwithin the switch casing, the contacts being designed for the attachmentof flexible electric conducting wires by a soldering operation.

The chief object of the invention is not only to avoid the necessity forthe soldering operation but to provide a better and more secureattachment for the conducting wires with a maximum area of surfacecontact consistent with the size of the tags or their equivalents.

According to the present invention each tag or its equivalent is formedwith a projecting tang or other projection to which the end of theconducting wire is attached by means of an enclosing tubular sleeve orits equivalent which is pinched to grip both tang and wire to provide agood electrical connection.

Preferably the pinching process is such that the tang and wire will bebent or kinked at a point intermediate its length so that the wire willbe more firmly resistant to any pulling force to which it may besubjected during use.

Although it is within the scope of the invention to employ a simplemetal sleeve open at both ends or closed at one end like a thimble orferrule it is preferred that the sleeve shall be open at both ends, oneend being formed with a peripheral flange, the sleeve being almostidentical with a tubular rivet.

A particular embodiment of the invention will now be described by way ofexample and with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a view (10 times magnified) of the parts constituting thecontact assembly in accordance with the particular embodiment and cableend part to be connected to the assembly;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the assembly connected to the cable end part;and

FIG. 3 is a section on the line IlI-Ill of FIG. 2.

A tag I, see particularly FIG. 2, is pressed out of sheet metal andforms a fixed electrical contact in a miniature electric switch. The tagI, viewed in plan, has a square part 2 which receives the cable and acurved part 3 which forms the switch contact. An elongate rectangularslot 4 extends from one front corner of the tag part 2 to a positioncentrally of the said part. A tang 5 extends at right angles to theplane of the tag 1 from the inner end of the slot 4. The tang 5 and theslot 4 are formed by a pressing operation out of an unslotted tag blank.The rear end part 6 of the tang 5 is thus pointed.

The front bare conductive end part 7 of an insulated cable 8 isdimensioned for insertion through the'inner end part of the slot 4 andto lie alongside the tang 5. A sleeve 9, generally in the form of arivet, has a cylindrical body 10 which is dimensioned to surround thetang 5 and cable part 7 and a radially extending end flange 11 whichseats against the tag 1.

In use, as can be seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, the bare front end part 7 ofthe cable 8 is passed through the slot 4 until the end of the insulatingcover on the cable contacts the under side of the tag 1, the bare endpart 7 of the cable lying parallel with and adjacent the tang 5. Theflanged sleeve 9 is then slipped over the bare end part 7 of the cable 8and the tang 5 until the flange 11 engages the upper surface of thetag 1. The sleeve 9 is then crimped by a suitable tool so that thesleeve body 10 is partly flattened to grip the cable end part 7 and isalso bent longitudinally through a right angle together with theenclosed cable end part 7 which has the effect of making a goodelectrical nonpulloff connection between the cable and tang l andpressing the flange ll firmly into contact with the surface of the tagl.

A suitable tool for the crimping process is a small punch acting on thesleeve body 10 at right angles to its length, the tool in no waydistorting the flange 11 but firmly squeezing the sleeve at a pointintermediate its length and bending its extremity at right angles and atthe same time flattening the extremity of the sleeve.

It will be appreciated that if the tag is enclosed completely within thecasing of the switch, connection of the cable and tag will have to bemade before the casing is finally closed by the attachment of the usualcasing cover, the cable projecting through a hole in the cover, the baremetal sleeve and tag being completely insulated by the switch casing tocomply with safety regulations.

Iclaim: 1. A contact assembly comprising: an electrically conductiveelement securable to an electrical component such as a switch;

structure defining a passage through the said element through which theconductive end part of an elongate conductor can be inserted to projectfrom a face of the element;

an electrically conductive projection extending from said face of theelement alongside the projecting conductive end part; and

a sleeve dimensioned to surround the projection and the projectingconductive end part with one end of the sleeve abutting the element, thesleeve being deformable to hold the projection and conductive end partin electrical connection with one another.

2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the sleeve in the functional positionis deformed into two parts generally at right angles to one another.

3. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the electrically conductive elementis a flat tag, slotted to define the passage, and wherein the projectionis a tang extending from one end of the slot.

4. The assembly of claim 3 wherein the sleeve is cylindrical and whereina radial flange is provided at the end of the sleeve which abuts thetag.

1. A contact assembly comprising: an electrically conductive elementsecurable to an electrical component such as a switch; structuredefining a passage through the said element through which the conductiveend part of an elongate conductor can be inserted to project from a faceof the element; an electrically conductive projection extending fromsaid face of the element alongside the projecting conductive end part;and a sleeve dimensioned to surround the projection and the projectingconductive end part with one end of the sleeve abutting the element, thesleeve being deformable to hold the projection and conductive end partin electrical connection with one another.
 2. The assembly of claim 1wherein the sleeve in the functional position is deformed into two partsgenerally at right angles to one another.
 3. The assembly of claim 1wherein the electrically conductive element is a flat tag, slotted todefine the passage, and wherein the projection is a tang extending fromone end of the slot.
 4. The assembly of claim 3 wherein the sleeve iscylindrical and wherein a radial flange is provided at the end of thesleeve which abuts the tag.